Thursday, December 15, 2016

The Double Standard

Former President Bill Clinton famously had nine sexual encounters with a 21-year-old White House intern, including but not limited to fellatio inside the Oval Office. Prior to that, during his tenure as Governor of Arkansas and while married to Hillary and the daddy of little Chelsea, he carried on a 12-year extra-marital affair with Gennifer Flowers, a former actress and model who had posed nude for a magazine at least once. Other Clinton accusers of disputed merit included Paula Jones, who claimed the governor had exposed himself to her in a motel room. (He denied this claim but still paid her $850,000 to go away.) He was also accused of rape while he was the Attorney General of Arkansas by a campaign volunteer in her hotel room (Juanita Broaddrick), while another woman claimed unwanted sexual touching and groping (Katherine Wiley) while he was president.

Dastardly doings indeed, yet pretty much every last Democrat on the planet, or at least the approximately 300 or more I have personally interviewed over the years, up to and including yesterday afternoon, absolutely adores Bill Clinton and found all that "misbehavior" quite acceptable, citing it as "his personal life" and certainly "none of our business."

Now let's look at President-elect Donald Trump. Married twice before, he has been with his present wife since 2005. His marital history is considered proof that "he has no respect for women." He has also admitted to enjoying seeing beautiful women partially undressed while he was the owner of the Miss Universe pageant. That translates into his being a "pig" who "marginalizes women." He was secretly recorded, 11 years ago, boasting to another man that celebrities can get away with all sorts of tomfoolery, like grabbing women by their private parts. (There is no way of knowing if he ever did that, he just said he could.) Finally, he called one-time comedian Rosie O'Donnell several bad things, but hey, who hasn't?

In response to Trump's alleged mistreatment of the fairer sex, the Women's March on Washington is scheduled for the day after his Inauguration, to send a "bold message" to the incoming president: "We will not rest until women have parity and equity at all levels of
leadership in society. We work peacefully while recognizing there is no
true peace without justice and equity for all." Parity-wise, so far Trump has named four women for Cabinet positions, causing an outraged outcry from the left about his "all-male cabinet." Meanwhile, Bill Clinton had, in his two terms as president, just four female cabinet members.

Apparently women can be treated badly, as long as it's a Democrat doing the treating.